Opponent calling out the score when I'm serving!

This past weekend in USTA Doubles one of our opponenets persisted in calling out the score when I was about to serve. My habit is to call out the score as I begin my approach to the baseline before I begin my motion. This became very irritating.....Has anyone been peeved at this???

Totally. The receiver has no business calling the serve. However, on a slightly different angle, have you ever played someone who NEVER called out the score? Whenever I play someone with this habit, there seems to be a couple of games where we have to go back and recreate the score. I recently played someone who only called out the score when they were winning the game, so 30-15 you would hear, but 15-30 never came out of his mouth. Without fail, if I was up in a game, he would not call the score. So, I asked him to call it out every point, which he did for a couple of games and then fell back into his habit...

JUN said:

it's simple etiquette. it's the server's job to call it out. if the receiving player doesn't hear the score before the ball is served, then he can ask. but that's it.

The interpretation can be viewed as a polite gesture prior to the beginning of the point, or it can be a nasty tactic to disrupt the flow of the match depending on how you look at the scenario. The U.S.T.A. format for most players is driven by results and in my observation many players use mental strategies to annoy or even badger the other opposition. I've seen many avenues in which players deliberately take several minutes before serving the ball or take excessive time to change sides during the match. I find that being mindful to my own thinking and actions really takes my focus away on what's happening on the other side of the net and refocuses my attention to what's more important, my own actions! I simply ignore and proceed to play the point as if nothing ever happened. This increased my effectiveness and over-all performance, I hope this helped.

The interpretation can be viewed as a polite gesture prior to the beginning of the point, or it can be a nasty tactic to disrupt the flow of the match depending on how you look at the scenario. The U.S.T.A. format for most players is driven by results and in my observation many players use mental strategies to annoy or even badger the other opposition. I've seen many avenues in which players deliberately take several minutes before serving the ball or take excessive time to change sides during the match. I find that being mindful to my own thinking and actions really takes my focus away on what's happening on the other side of the net and refocuses my attention to what's more important, my own actions! I simply ignore and proceed to play the point as if nothing ever happened. This increased my effectiveness and over-all performance, I hope this helped.

Sincerely,

Jason Lampionejlampione@yahoo.comtennisfussion@yahoo.com(631)682-9894Quantum Performance Transformer"Becoming a champion is first developing a champion like mindset."-Jason Lampione.

Good point. Including you at times? Do tell. What kind of stuff have you done in the past?

joshua robertson said:

yes and my suggestion is to get used to it. many tennis players are assholes by nature, including me at times, and all the spoils go to the most mentally strong player,who can block out the most while he is playing, particularly serving.

Same thing created an ugly mess for me 2 years ago. I actually got so irritated that I walked up to the net and warned him that I would lose my cool if he said one more word while the ball was in my hand, needless to say the match ended early and I had a sore fist.